The NYTimes explains why Big Bidniz has a serious sad for the Young Gun Lost:
… While he was often an adversary to both the Tea Party and Democrats in Congress, Mr. Cantor, a Republican and the House majority leader, was also a powerful ally of business big and small, from giants like Boeing to the many independently owned manufacturers and wholesalers that rely on the federal government for financial support.
His loss at the hands of David Brat, a Tea Party-inspired economics professor who campaigned on throwing corrupt Wall Street bankers in jail, railed against crony capitalism and insisted that immigration reform would only reward lawbreakers, spurred business leaders to mobilize to preserve their clout in Congress. Already uneasy over what they see as an especially hostile strain of anticorporate populism growing within the conservative movement, and threatening the traditional corporate-friendly centers of power inside the Republican Party, many businesses fear the loss of some of their strongest champions on Capitol Hill…
Leaders in the financial community still have a formidable force of allied lawmakers and hired lobbyists in Washington. But several major initiatives that business hoped to see through Congress this year are in doubt. There is the reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank, a vital line of support for small businesses and large manufacturers, immigration reform and financing for the nation’s highway system…
The majority leader stopped a provision — reviled by the industry — in the Stock Act of 2012 that would have required hedge funds to disclose more about how they gather market-sensitive intelligence. He battled with conservative lawmakers to extend the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act, a top priority of the insurance industry, which has helped it recover from losses after the Sept. 11 attacks. He helped scuttle White House proposals to collect more taxes from private equity firms. His wife, Diana, has had a career in banking, working for Goldman Sachs and New York Private Bank & Trust….
“Cantor was the hub for finance, the hub for a host of big corporations that could trust him to get things done,” said Sean West, the head of United States analysis for the Eurasia Group, which advises corporations about political risk. “He was the one standing between the conservative pitchforks and the business community on a whole host of issues.”…
The redoubtable TBogg has a simple explanation for Cantor’s surprise loss:
… Let us add to the cornucopia of reasons why Eric Cantor will soon be out of a civil service job and forced to make millions as a lobbyist in an effort to keep himself knee-deep in ribeyes.
Eric Cantor is a dick.
One need only spend a few minutes watching Cantor on TV to realize that the only way he could be more dickish is if he was driving a black BMW while wearing Google Glasses. He’s smarmy in a passive aggressive way and one can imagine that same genteel southern accent may have once been used used by a landowner as he explained to a sharecropper that he’s going to need a bigger cut to cover the cost of a broken shovel…
Virginians in Cantor’s district no doubt chose one from column A and one from column B from the I Hate Eric Cantor menu above before ordering him out of the House. But years from now, when discussing his political demise, the details will seem a little fuzzy, the specific reasons lost in the mists of time. Eventually someone will say, “Why exactly did we vote him out?” the answer will be, “Well, he was kind of a dick.”
And everyone will agree….
rikyrah
Cantor forgot Congressman 101 -be good at constituent services.
Baud
TBogg is wrong. People elect and reelect Republican dicks all the time. Cantor lost because he neglected his district while failing to be enough of a dick to Democrats.
Hal
the only way he could be more dickish is if he was driving a black BMW while wearing Google Glasses.
srv
Maybe all these republicans just have mad cow disease.
Hal
Stupid mobile won’t let me Edit. I was going to say now that’s smug.
Russ
One less Republican dick with seniority is a good thing.
Amir Khalid
EddieEric Cantor goes back to private life without having to suffer a protein deficiency. So there’s a cloud to every silver lining.Alex S.
Eric Cantor is more a douche than a dick, but wearing Google Glasses is spot on. He obviously needs to them to check the development of his speculative investments in food and water while driving his black BMW.
Anya
Speaking of people who are out of touch with their base, what’s up with brian schwartzer? Is he really interested in running for president, if so why does he think shitting on Obama and cozying up to Romney is winning formula in the Dem primary?
Corner Stone
@Anya:
This may be the funniest autocorrect I have seen in some time.
hilts
Fuck Eric Cantor for his politics and for attending a Britney Spears concert
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/03/26/713318/-Video-Rep-Eric-Cantor-at-Britney-Spears-Concert
hilts
RIP Casey Kasem
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seCkv_aqSF8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDYK2H0ldbo
Tehanu
Cantor’s whole career, in fact his whole existence, if I may quote my late lamented Grandma Frances, is a shanda für die goyim. Or to put it another way, even those who have been persecuted outsiders for centuries can produce offspring whose reaction is not to defend other persecuted outsiders, but to become persecutors.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Anya: @Anya:
Schweitzer a schwartzer? Color me surprised.
OTOH, if by some chance he became the nominee would you be among those insisting that he get our votes because he’s better than the Republican?
Cervantes
@Baud: He’s certainly wrong about this:
Cantor was not in one.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Cervantes:
The only result of Cantor’s loss will be that he can afford a better grade of knee pads.
MattF
A genuinely satisfying thing about Cantor’s loss is that the gerrymandering that added a bunch of conservative rural Virginians to his district was part of the reason for his downfall. They didn’t like him.
Bill D.
@Cervantes: Exactly. He was supposed to be a public servant, but being an elected politician is not the same as being an appointed civil servant. I’m going to scream if I hear one more mention of “elected bureaucrats” by ignorant people who weren’t paying attention in their high school civics class.
Mike in NC
Years ago my wife and I were in the Richmond area for some reason. It was mostly ugly and depressing. We stopped to get drinks at some fast food joint and I asked the kid at the counter the name of the town. He said, “Henrico” and I made a mental note to never set foot in that shithole again. I figured they deserved Cantor.
raven
@Mike in NC: “The Fan” is cool!
gwangung
@Higgs Boson’s Mate:
There’s a better than even chance that he would be, even given his jerkishness.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I saw poor old Michael Steele was floating the idea of Cantor for RNC chair, I guess to appeal to all the people who find Reince Preibus too likable and charming
I guess I have to confess that I would look at a black BMW if I could afford one. Always liked them.
WereBear
@rikyrah: He didn’t forget it.
Dicks don’t do constituent service!
WereBear
@Amir Khalid: Yeah… he won’t miss a meal. Even a big fancy one.
Ultraviolet Thunder
I’m gonna go contrarian here. Cantor’s loss was startling, but it may be due to unique circumstances. The conservative media basically back alley stomped him and didn’t stop until the polls closed. He didn’t kiss the media’s rings and the media took it out of his hide. His opponent wouldn’t have won without all the free airtime.
And wasn’t the turnout around 9%? Hardly anyone voted except for the hard core who supported Brat.
Baud
@Anya:
I’ve been waiting to see if the kos folks put up a post on it. Schweizer was heavily promoted there back in the day. Nothing yet.
jl
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
” I saw poor old Michael Steele was floating the idea of Cantor for RNC chair, ”
Steele has an ax to grind. Cantor would be another successor who would make Steele look good at the job.
Anya
@Corner Stone: Auto correct is the best.
@Higgs Boson’s Mate: Hell no. But luckily for me, he won’t win the nomination. I think he has the same chance as Jon Huntsman. Shitting on Obama and comparing him unfavorably to Romney might endear him to the beltway media but it won’t get him anywhere in the Dem primaries.
hildebrand
@Anya: He must be angling for a spot on Morning Shmoe.
GregB
I hope these Wall Street morons understand that the left will hold smelly protests and rail at them on blogs. The rightwingers will start board room massacres and truck-bombing banks.
They’ll be coming for you, you flipping morons. You’re little babies are all grown up and howling for blood.
jl
@Anya: If Schweitzer keeps up his new and very anti-improved identify as a corny hambone who shits on Obama, he would look like a clown compared to everyone else in a Democratic primary debate, we don’t even have to guess who they would be yet. I think he is one troublesome Democratic presidentin’ hopeful we will not have to worry about for long.
scav
What’s the going rate for overtime on miniature violinists? The saga continues: Idaho GOP Fails To Elect Chairman, Agree On Platform
Will this interview go well . . . . Entire counties being tossed!
jl
@scav:
” Idaho GOP Fails To Elect Chairman, Agree On Platform ”
A problem of too many inmates and not enough bleeps. Unless the the GOP corporate serious daddies can find a way for unlimited corporate cash to solve all problems soon, probably be more of that.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Ultraviolet Thunder: The WaPo argues that turnout was high:
It’s rather pathetic that 13.7% is considered high turnout for a primary, but there you are.
Cantor lost because his supporters didn’t bother to turn out to vote for him. Whether that was because they didn’t like him, or thought he had it in the bag, or whatever, is anyone’s guess.
FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
jl
It being backwoods VA and Idaho, change violins to fiddles, and we have a song.
Tiny fiddles
In the whine
Make me happy
Make me feel fine
Tiny fiddles
Make me warm all over
With a feeling that I’m gonna
Love it, till their end of time
So here’s to the yelling loon
And here’s to the bag of tea
And mostly here’s a toast
To you and me
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Anya:
I read Schweitzer’s “Time” interview, among other pieces. Is he wrong to advocate for UHC rather than the ACA? Is he wrong to be critical of the NSA, or of politicians being way too cozy with Wall Street? Obama has made his share of mistakes. I fail to see that criticizing him where he fell short as shitting on him.
catclub
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
GOP has massive wins in 2010 and Steele gets thrown out. GOP loses for pres and makes no gains in the senate in 2012 and Preibus stays in. At least racism is dead in the GOP.
MikeJ
@hilts:
I guess his daughter didn’t get him to a doctor in time. That whole soap opera was tragic.
Baud
@Higgs Boson’s Mate:
No one is criticizing Schweizer for those things.
Ultraviolet Thunder
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet:
Thanks for the clarification. I was mistaken. I had read somewhere that the turnout was 9%, which would be abysmal even for a primary.
Yeah, people who supported Cantor just didn’t bother to show up despite all the dough he put into the race. maybe ads weren’t what his constituents wanted. Maybe they wanted more of him at home instead of in DC. It’s not like it would have been a difficult trip to show up now and then.
catclub
So Cantor WAS the top bagman for business in Congress, and reaped a huge pile of money from it.
1. Does he get to keep those campaign donations for personal use, now?
2. Who becomes the top bagman for business in the House GOP?
Corner Stone
@Higgs Boson’s Mate:
*GASPS*
e.a.f.
need not worry. once the teabaggers get to Washington and the lobbyists start making their rounds and explain how things work, the teabaggers will become good compliant senators and congress people and everyone can go back to sleep.
Lyrebird
@hilts: Awwwww. Thanks for the news. The voice of my childhood!
jl
@Higgs Boson’s Mate: You asked Anya, but I’ll chime in. I think Schweitzer is a smart and informed guy. He understands many issues better than a lot of politicians. Yes, many of his policy ideas are good. But I think he has adopted a clownish folksy manner, and is saying wild things about what was possible in healthcare reform, for example, establishing Medicare for all. He is right about the NSA, but has to talk about Snowdon in way that will be excessively controversial for no reason. I think it comes off as clownish and too much like bashing rather than constructive criticism, and he won’t go anywhere in the primaries.
I think he will have to ditch his new schtick if he is to be helpful to the Democrats and keep up a presence in the primaries..
WereBear
Looks to me like he didn’t have any supporters!
lamh36
Coming from a family full of twins I love this video. Happy Father’s Day to all the twin dads out there.
Baby Girl Meets Her Dad’s Twin Brother
rikyrah
@catclub:
I thought that the rule was that if you declare it as income, and pay taxes, you can take the money.
Mandalay
@Higgs Boson’s Mate: @Higgs Boson’s Mate:
That’s the Time interview. Just google “Schweitzer Obama” for some of the poisonous shit Schweitzer has been gratuitously spewing about the President.
Regardless of that, Schweizter doesn’t even make the DINO threshold. He’s a nasty conman, and a self-serving scumbag.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@WereBear: :-)
Yeah, he got blown out. And I’m glad.
But Brat only had 7,218 votes more than Cantor. With $5M, Cantor should have been able to overcome that difference…
Thankfully, he thought he had it sewn up and was entitled to re-election, so the voters thought differently.
Cheers,
Scott.
WaterGirl
Holy fuck! I just got email from Microsoft saying they are updating their terms of use and privacy statement.
This means they were actually looking at the content of email messages, etc and using that to target advertising. Jeez, how can that possibly be legal? And we’re worried about the NSA?
Mandalay
@WaterGirl:
You’re kidding, right? Right?….
Anya
@Higgs Boson’s Mate: As Baud said, no one is faulting him for that, but disrespecting the president while kissing up to Mitt Romney is not a winnable strategy. This is what he said about POTUS when he was asked: “is there a single thing President Obama has done that you consider a positive achievement?”:
And this is what he said about Romney (comparing him to Obama):
From the Washington Post
He said this at a Republican donor retreat (run by Romney) where he criticized Obama’s energy policy and where he named Rand Paul as the one law maker he agrees with on some issues.
Baud — I want to see what Kos says tomorrow.
Elizabelle
Jeff Schapiro, longtime political columnist in the Richmond Times Dispatch, on what he thinks led to Cantor’s loss:
I love that final sentence. Aging natives with hard heads. Schapiro can be a most entertaining writer.
Although he was as blindsided by Brat’s win as anyone else.
Suffern ACE
@Elizabelle: so those moderates voted for the tea party candidates?
WaterGirl
@Mandalay: No, I’m actually serious. Does that make me an idiot?
jl
@Anya Thanks, I forgot about those beauts.
if Schweitzer had turned into a grifter, he probably understands the window for making bank on being a loose cannon maverick who let’s fly with every single though on the top of his head. Let’s see how serious he is about actually making a coherent case for himself as a candidate for anything. If he is a grifter now, he’ll won’t do diddly for the midterms, and will be long gone by the time serious work for 2016 comes around.
I see no reason to give him props for his good ideas, since there are others, with just as many credentials, who make similar arguments
JPL
@Suffern ACE: Brat ran on a populist agenda. Unfortunately, he believes that if you go to church and are nice to your neighbor, markets will take care of themselves. In other words, he is a libertarian fiscally and a whacko socially.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Anya:
As Hillary found out when she disrespected Obama and kissed up to McCain with her commander-in-chief threshold remark.I’m not a fan of Schweitzer, I certainly wouldn’t rule out the threat posed by someone with a strong populist message.
Elizabelle
@Suffern ACE:
I suspect a few did, to stick it to Cantor. More to the point, they may have sickened of Cantor earlier than expected, and did not turn out.
It’s thought that federal government employees, and there are many in the north of his district, did not appreciate the shutdown one bit.
TBogg called it, noticing that Cantor is a dick. Not lost on his constituents. He wasn’t “their dick” for enough of them, perhaps.
Jeff Schapiro, with an Election Day morning comment:
gogol's wife
@lamh36:
That is so cute!
WaterGirl
@gogol’s wife: I loved the side-eye the little girl would give the “other” dad. So sweet. At least she took it in stride and didn’t start crying because it didn’t make sense.
Mandalay
@WaterGirl: You would have agreed to permit targeted advertising when you signed up for a Microsoft email service. Now that doesn’t mean Microsoft was ever analyzing your Skype sessions or uploaded images to pick out which ads to foist on you. But it does mean that your on-line activity was being monitored (e.g. which web sites you visited) in order to send you personalized ads.
scav
@WaterGirl: A little slow to the full game, I’m afraid so. It’s been clear for years that corporate mining of such data was as much, if not more a problem that govt. activities. Privacy protections were stronger in Canada and the Europe even in the dark ages when I was studying related issues during the late 90s, working with existing reports (meaning I was far from first-wave). Weren’t there threats of in-line in-mail advertising for a while?
Long Tooth
And if the Pulitzer committee ever starts handing out better-late-than-never awards, those apt words by T Bogg will be honored.
Anya
@jl: I don’t think he’s politically savvy. Mitt Romney is a non entity. He can’t deliver him any votes, so why is he wasting his time and political capital on sucking up to him? I just don’t get it.
As for grifting, according to the Post he’s a mining company executive. That’s why he was trashing Obama’s energy policy at the retreat.
@Higgs Boson’s Mate: Schweitzer’s white guy populist (who hates Obama and is not afraid to say it) schtick might make him popular with the cool college kids but it won’t win him votes in the Democratic primaries. I don’t even think the cool kids will like him when they discover his environmental stands and his love of guns.
Tokyokie
If Cantor lost because he’s a dick, then why in Jim Inhofe still in the Senate?
pattonbt
Of all the politicians out there, none ginned up a level of hate from me just on sight alone more than Eric Cantor. While there are many many many many politicians and government / media hacks I dislike with much greater intensity and think are a million times more detsructive then he, Cantor just always looked the part of slick, self-satisfied a-hole politician. Someone who you could never trust (not that you can trust any politician). Everything about the way he carried himself screamed “dick” and “me first” climber. The kind of man who’d sell out his own family for a nickle and some face time on camera. He was always the one politician, that if I was a violent sort, I would cross the street to punch in the face just because.
Good riddance. Even if it is replacing the devil you know with the one you don’t.
Anoniminous
@Ultraviolet Thunder:
Not according to Booman.
Another Holocene Humann
@Higgs Boson’s Mate: “Schweitzer a schwartzer? Color me surprised.”
He’ll be a shvitzer when Dem primary voters get done with his Obama-rejecting ass.
FlipYrWhig
This supposedly “populist” element of Brat’s worldview is being wildly overstated. His professorship is sponsored by a bank. His whole career is based on studying the “moral” aspects of capitalism. Maybe he doesn’t like Wall Street — who does? — but he loves, loves, loves capitalism. He thinks the solution to amoral and rapacious capital is piety and virtue and churchgoing. He’s that rare bird, a theocratic libertarian. IOW, a loon.
Another Holocene Humann
@Anya: FYWP ate my comment but you said it even better than I did. Worse than Huntsman, if anything.
Anne Laurie
@Anya:
Not to defend Schweizer’s verbal assault on our President, but I’m assuming Romney paid Schweizer’s way to spend a very nice weekend among the rich people, collecting nice-guy-to-have-a-beer-with chits and a ton of free media exposure otherwise unavailable to Democrats from unglamorous flyover states like Montana. If nothing else ever comes of this weekend, what’s Schweitzer’s loss?
There’s room on the Bobblehead circuit, and possibly in the Democratic primaries, for a “blue collar guns God & gasoline” contender running hard to the right of the de Blasio urban progressives. Feinting in that direction is a longshot small bet with a potentially rich payoff. There was no love lost between Schweitzer and the Obama campaign, and there has been plenty of talk(true or not) that President Obama’s people aren’t putting enough energy into helping out Dems running in 2014.
If everything goes just right, and this time next year President Obama has a slim Democratic majority in both houses, the economy is perking up, and the ongoing disaster in the Middle East remains a crisis only for those unfortunates living in the region, there’s a boatload of Proud Progressives competing for the Democratic crown and Brian Schweitzer has free run of the media green rooms to critique them. If things aren’t so copacetic, Schweitzer gets to be The Guy Who Correctly Predicted, and he gets a prominent speaking role at the 2016 convention (cuz that’s how us Dems roll).
What’s the downside for Brian Schweitzer, right now? That all the True Progressives are going to hate him? Heck, you hated him before he showed up at Romney’s party, didn’t you?
Anoniminous
Schweitzer’s ConservaDem schtick is reaching for a constituency that no longer exists.
Graph also goes some way to explaining the rapid switch of public opinion on Same Sex Marriage.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
And you left out the clownish mugging the reporter described,
The thing he leaves out of his arguments on health care is how he would get something better passed. I guess he has a lot of faith in his pale skin and bolo tie
Anne Laurie
@Anoniminous: Still a nice chunk of votes at the ‘mixed’ center of that pile. The very swiftness of the left-right sorting proves how volatile the “low information” voter is liable to be… “centrists” might not be able to anoint a primary winner, but the horse-trading will be fierce & IMO that’s where Schweitzer is looking for a niche.
Anya
@Anne Laurie: So.. he’s grifting?
And you’re right, I never liked him. I never thought of him more than a blue dog with a marketable schtick.
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I was actually embarrassed for him so I left out that part.
@Another Holocene Humann: I was going to say Michael Steel but then I thought Huntsman is more geographically appropriate.
FlipYrWhig
@Anne Laurie: Schweitzer is Ed Rendell in a cowboy hat. He’s squandered a lot of goodwill from the old “netroots” days. If you had told me four years ago that Dinosaur Steve Beshear would be helping Democrats and Brian Schweitzer would be acting like a dick, I never would have believed it.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
nice
WaterGirl
@Mandalay: So because I use Outlook as my email program, they have the right to look at the contents of my email? That seems crazy.
Mandalay
@WaterGirl:
Why? Of course they can, and you would have agreed to that (presumably without realizing it) when you accepted their lengthy terms when you set up your email account. But just because they can does not mean that they do.
And in contrast to Google/GMail, Microsoft specifically assert that they do not scan Outlook emails for targeted advertising: “Microsoft’s email version , Outlook.com, does not scan users’ emails”.
But even if Microsoft aren’t scanning the content of your emails, the NSA definitely are. An easy (but not recommended) way to verify this would be to send an email containing a plausible death threat on the president.
Anoniminous
@Anne Laurie:
Low information voters do not engage in primaries. In 2008 there was an historically high national 27% turnout for both parties with 19.1 million Dems voting to 13.1 million GOP. 2012 reverted to historic levels with 16.33% turnout, in part because Obama ran unopposed.
I think that level of disengagement is neither good for the political parties or the country but that’s how it is.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Anoniminous:
Turnout in the California midterms was less than 20%. Turnout in LA county was around 13%.Whatever they’re selling, people aren’t interested in buying it.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Higgs Boson’s Mate: We have far more elections than other 1st World countries.
John M. Burt
@WaterGirl: Reminds me of my brother’s childhood parody of the Carefree Sugarless Gum jingle: “Carefree Boogerless Gum — not like last year’s!”
WaterGirl
@John M. Burt: hahahahaha
Edit: Was it pizza hut who had the ad campaign- hey, our pizza doesn’t suck anymore, not like it did before
KS in MA
@lamh36:
Awwwww! That’s wonderful!
Matt McIrvin
@WaterGirl: That’s the business model of Google’s Gmail. Some algorithm on the server parses your email and puts vaguely relevant ads on the page.
Matt McIrvin
@Anne Laurie:
Or he can go Zell Miller/Joe Lieberman and bask in glory at the 2016 Republican convention.
WaterGirl
@Matt McIrvin: That’s why I don’t use gmail. I use email from my tiny little ISP for a reason. And then to think that just because I use Outlook, Microsoft gets to look at the content of my messages? Maddening.
CONGRATULATIONS!
So, Markos’ favorite Dem turns out to be a turncoat?
Man, that guy sure can pick ’em.